Tuesday, 20 September 2011

MASKS opens at Nobrow Gallery, London

On Thursday 15th September, Masks opened to the general public and the launch night was a blast. Thank you to everyone who attended and a special thanks to Sam and Al at Nobrow for hosting the event, Adrian, James, Natasha, Ann Lou and Joe for being such stars helping me ready the show, Nick White and Laura Beckett for looking after me in their lovely home all week, Sahar Freemantle for her beautiful hats, Felt Mistress for the incredible and gigantic felt versions of Mr Fish, Taimatsu Maru and Neko Mata from the Bento Bestiary and lastly, my father, Colin Newman for the fantastic work he put into making the Masks come to life in 3D. Hopefully this is just the first of many projects with him in the future. The prints from the show are available from Nobrow. Below are some pictures from the night and some press reviews I've found from around the interwebs.

As the show is a part of the London Design Festival it has been gaining some great press. Here are some snippets and quotes.

"Newman’s evocation of primitivism, however, is also layered with a retroactive sense of futuristic fascination. Weird, wily faces are composed with a repetitive mechanical energy reminiscent of Italian Futurism, the graphic rigor of Russian Constructivism and the clunky horror of nineteen-fifties American science-fiction monsters in a faded pulp comic palette. Symmetry offers no solace in these images, at once remarkable reminders of the highly organized aesthetics of the uncivilized and machined abstractions of ritualistic horror."

Newman floundered around in the dross pits of earth for several millennia before finally gluing his brain blocks together, then gettin' up and goin' home. Since then he's been honing his contemporary fusion of bold shapes, bright colours and playful characters into something resembling a career. He has produced work for clients including the Tate, IBM, BBC Radio 4, Fantagraphics, Absolut Vodka and Nobrow Press.